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The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, the Merchant of Venice, James Bond, Indiana Jones, The Magician King, the masks of the Carnival… filtered through these works and more, the idea of Venice has occupied a place of fantasy-tinged exotica in my mind since childhood. For little Phelan, it was a city of canal-side mystery, where the sound of lapping water was carried by warm breezes. It was a place where moonlight glinted from glazed tiles lining the floors of palaces, and footsteps echoed amongst arches of white stone, painted blue by twilight and framing views of the Adriatic sea.

Ok I’ll stop now, because Carol said I was making this post, and I quote, too… “Froo Froo”. Ahem.

I’m happy to say that for me at least, Venice is still largely full of magic and mystery and venerable history. It’s also a place where you’ll get brained by tourists wielding selfie-sticks if you aren’t careful (Carol had some choice words about what people could do with their selfie sticks). I think that the difference between a tourist and a traveller is the degree of respect given to the host culture, and alas in that sense ‘Tourism’ is alive and well in Venice.

There is something melancholy about watching throngs of visitors clamber over stones and statues older than many countries, while the locals look on with tired eyes. Every moment in Venice is also a moment that the water rises, imperceptible yet inexorably swallowing the city alive. A visit to the cemetery island of San Michele reinforced my impressions of a nobly fading Venice.

It isn’t all gloom though. Venice is unquestionably beautiful, and the slow decay of its buildings somehow enhances that beauty. Away from the crowded hotspots like the Piazza San Marco an entirely different Venice still exists, made up of quiet streets and cool shadows.

There is amazing food, art and history soaked into the architectural bones of the city. The glass of Murano, black cuttlefish pasta, coffee at Caffè Florian, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection… Venice is a place that neither Carol or I will soon forget.

Amsterdam! The city of water, vice, and bicycles. It’s a place that never fails to bring out a knowing grin when you tell someone that you are going, and suggestions to *wink* try the coffee (to which I reply that I’m not a big “coffee drinker”. The layers of euphemism start to get a little complicated at this point). Amsterdam has a long and storied history, too- it was once the center of the Dutch empire, and hosts treasures like the Anne Frank House. It possesses some incredible collections of art like the Vincent van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum, as well as a remarkably tolerant culture made up of warm, remarkably tolerant people.

The hotel we stayed at was near the Vondelpark and a 15 minute walk from downtown. The night we arrived we checked in quite late, and there wasn’t anything open nearby for dinner. Carol resorted to buying candy bars and chips out of a vending machine to take the edge off, which prompted a passing hotel guest to foolishly snicker, “Didn’t prepare for the munchies, eh?”. I believe that the hotel maintenance crews are still scrubbing the red paste of his remains from the carpet and walls, such was the force of Carol’s hunger-fueled glare.

Dangerously ravenous the next morning, we set off in search of food and adventure (in that order). To our delight we found a weekend farmers market, and subsequently gorged ourselves on crepes and meat pies. Ignoring the shocked looks of the locals, we wiped the crumbs from our faces and then began exploring in earnest.

The market.

I am so happy to have food right now.

Rainbow of mushrooms.

Many lazy cats in Amsterdam.

The oldest parts of Amsterdam are nestled amongst a series of layered canals, navigable by bridge or boat. We made use of both, dodging speeding bikes and threading through large crowds of tourists as we drifted vaguely towards the city center. After taking a ‘water tour’ on a guide-boat (complete with cheesy automatic narration and amazing views), we set to wandering by foot, directionless and happy.

Yes, those are wild parakeets. In Amsterdam.

Stroopwaffle!

We visited alleyway bars and cheese museums, and walked down narrow streets lit by dim red lights wreathed in marijuana smoke. We passed groups of nervous looking men milling outside of tall glass windows, shopfronts selling a different kind of flesh. The men appeared to be either gathering their courage or gawking as a wide variety of women wearing the smallest amount of clothing possible beckoned invitingly to them.

Essence of Carol.

I didn’t bring my skateboard.

We drank in the views of the 700-year-old landscape from canal-spanning bridges, and marveled at the improbably vertical architecture (constructed in such a way as to avoid property taxes historically based on the width, not height, of a building). Most structures were leaning in a manner that was both charming and alarming.

Given the wide variety of things to see (beautiful, trashy, old, modern, and all if it in between), Carol and I were in a frenzy to see as much as possible. In our enthusiasm we ran ourselves a little ragged, so the next day we decided to take it slow. And by take it slow I mean we woke up early to beat the crowds of the Van Gogh museum and browse its bright oily treasures. We did dial it down a little bit after that, topping off a stroll through a spring-like Vondelpark with canalside glasses of liquor called Jenever (a member of the gin family). Content, we watched the crowds of people and bicycles stream by until it was time to catch our plane.

I have always wanted to travel to Switzerland, ever since I did a project on it in 6th grade. My mind was filled with images of grand views of the Alps with little Swiss Chalets hanging onto every hillside. Steep sloping hills that run into clear mountain lakes. Yes, this is in fact what Switzerland looks like when you get away from the city.

Zurich however, is a city of 1.83 million people. Situated on the northern tip of Lake Zurich; on a clear day you can see the Alps in the distance. Unfortunately, we only had one clear day where you could see the mountains from the city. The Old City of Zurich is ornamented with the large churches, Frauen Kirche and GrossMunster, as well as many clock towers and historic buildings.

Small city trams criss cross through the city and occasionally you will see a fondue train pass by, a one car tram that brings tourists through town while stuffing them with delicious cheese and wine for the low price of 99 Euros a person (sarcasm). We opted to have fondue sitting in a restaurant though. We received a recommendation to try Le Dezaley for fondue, a quaint french restaurant tucked in the corner of an alley in the old city. I don’t think we have ever eaten so much cheese at one time. SOOOOOoooo tasty. The next day we opted to eat healthier to recover from this extravagant cheese feast. I know, can there ever be too much cheese? We didn’t want to find out. Speaking of food, we also got to eat at the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world.

Friday was a beautiful day sunny, clear, in the mid 40s so I headed up to Uetliberg for a hike. Uetliberg is a small mountain of 2,130 ft located directly outside the city. Once up on the ridge there are hiking trails that lead in every direction. The hike I did was Uetliberg to Felsenegg. Hiking is popular here, you can tell being outside in nature is a way of life. The ridge trail offers great views of the city, as well as the lake and Alps. Although everything was covered with snow, you could sense Spring coming, birds chirping, the snow melting off the trees in the sun. It was nice to be out in nature again. Phelan and I have been talking about how nice it is to feel Spring in the air, the distinctive smell, feel, and sound of it.

That evening we had a great visit with Chloe, a co-worker of Phelan’s who has recently relocated to Zurich from the Bay Area. This gave us a glimpse in what it would be like to really live in Zurich full time. She took us to a place called Helvti Diner for burgers. YUM! Prices were a bit shocking though. Switzerland is an expensive place.

We were hoping for a clear day so we could take a trip to the Mountains, but as stated before we only had one clear day…snow was in the forecast. So we took a train north of the city to the Rhine Falls. This was a popular destination for painters in the early 1900s and is still a sight to be seen. The Rhine Falls are the largest plain waterfall in Europe, with that said, this must be due to the width and amount of water that passes over the falls. It is hard to really be impressed after you have seen waterfalls like Niagra Falls, but they were still pretty. There are several viewing areas where you can get right up next to and in the spray of the falls.

After our trip to the falls we headed back to the city and took a walk downtown since Phelan had not gotten to see much of it yet. Lucky for us they were celebrating Carnival that weekend in Zurich. Marching bands all dressed in brightly colored clothes and face paint would blast out familiar tunes while locals watched drinking their Glühwein. Ah Glühwein, mulled red wine served hot in the winter. It is definitely a nice addition to any cold day while walking around seeing the sights. One of the things that Phelan and I enjoy most when in new places is being where locals are, seeing how they live and just people watching. So this was a nice end to our trip.

After a week and a half of traveling we were ready for a break, and although our apartment hotel room in Hamburg is definitely not home, it was nice to be back in a place that is our temporary home where things are a little more familiar.

Sorry for the delay in Blaag posts, we had a busy February. We will make up for it with the prohibitive length of this post. Things that happened:

Friends came to visit from London, and one of them saw snow for the first time!

Carol stayed up until 4am to watch the Super Bowl. Phelan tried, but did not succeed.

We went to Bavaria, Switzerland, and Austria (briefly). Let’s talk about the Bavaria:

We started out in Munich and drove to a small town in Southern Bavaria called Garmisch – Partenkirchen, home of the 1936 Winter Olympics. I still can’t really pronounce it. Major ski events are still held at their Olympic Stadium. We were glad that we chose to visit this cute ski town with the streets lined with Alpine-style houses nestled into the towering Bavarian Alps (much majesty).

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Munich

Munich

We had just enough time to go to the Partnach Gorge when we arrived. It takes about an hour to hike through the gorge and make your way back down the mountain on a (terrifying) cable car. The hike through the gorge showcases crystal clear water ( so clear), amazing ice formations, and tunnels burrowed through the mountain side.

View from the cable car.

Hot water and cold air.

The Gorge.

The next day was my birthday and castle extravaganza day!

The road to the Castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau lead us through Germany and Austria’s Zugspitze area, a section of the Bavarian Alps containing the tallest mountain in Germany (perhaps unsurprisingly named the Zugspitze). As soon as we crossed over into Austria we were greeted by a snow covered field (moonlighting as a golf course in the summer). The frosted trees framed an awe inspiring view of Zugspitze. Locals were headed out onto the snow-covered golf course for a morning ski. In the distance you could see a town where the ski area literally ran all the way into the streets (the slopes and houses were pretty much merged together).

Austria.

Austria.

Austria.

Austria.

Eventually the road turned back into Germany and onto Castle Neuschwanstein. I pretty much started jumping up and down like an excited child at the first sight of the castle (which I hope amused the dour parking attendant). The castle is absolutely gorgeous, and the path to reach it takes you through a picturesque Bavarian town (filled with shops containing the exact same set of tourist-centric products. So many beer steins).

Seeing Neuschwanstein has pretty much been a life goal of mine ever since I knew it existed, and the experience was one of those rare cases when reality lives up to expectations. It is in almost every sense a storybook castle: never built for war or defense, Neuschwanstein is the product of a romantic king’s idealized version of what a medieval palace should be like. The castle also has a bittersweet history, as the king never saw it finished (most of the rooms are still not completed) and he died in mysterious circumstances after being declared mad and dethroned.

Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein (forbidden interior pic of the concert hall).

Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein’s sister castle, Hohenschwangau, is a more practical sort of place. Several generations of royal families actually lived there, and as such it has a more utilitarian demeanor. Of course, this is only in comparison to the fairy-tale quality of Neuschwanstein. Hohenschwangau is a magnificent structure in its own right.

Hohenschwangau.

Hohenschwangau.

Hohenschwangau.

Jagerhaus (hunting lodge).

After soaking in as much castle-majesty as possible (seriously I feel like I am being a little excessive with the adjectives here but just trust me the views were good), we headed to our hotel for the night. This was an adventure in itself, as we ended up driving down what appeared to be a sidewalk in a park (story for another blog post).

We spent the next day doing a little off-the-grid exploring on our way to the final scheduled castle stop. Naturally, we went off-grid to explore another castle. Driving down the road we saw signs for something called the “Wasser-schloss”, which means “Water-palace” in German. We looked at each other, said “that sounds amazing!” and then promptly veered off the road in pursuit. We began to have second thoughts right around the time a large tractor was bearing down us on a one-way mountainous road but we eventually found the Water-palace and it was charming.

Glatt.

Wasserschloss.

Wasserschloss (moat).

Our final castle of the day was Burg Hohenzollern. You may recall the German word ‘Schloss’ from the previous paragraph as meaning ‘Palace’ in English. ‘Burg’ in German is roughly equivalent to ‘Fortress’. As such, Hohenzollern was not a place of fairytales. Battles have been fought on its grounds, and it has been razed twice and rebuilt three times. Its current aesthetically pleasing incarnation belies the bloody history it possesses. Some savage mystique must still lay about the grounds though, as we saw not one but two impromptu snowball fights break out in the courtyard.

Hohenzollern.

Hohenzollern.

Hohenzollern.

Hohenzollern.

Hohenzollern.

That night, our castle-lust fully sated, we drove down the cobbled streets of Rothenburg ob der Tauber to our hotel. Rothenburg is a remarkably well-preserved medieval village, all the more interesting because people actually still live there. The entire thing looks like the backdrop of a movie, but when you peek around the edge and expect to see cardboard, you get more movie. We spent a night and a day there, walking the town walls, exploring the tiny twisting streets and marveling. We weren’t even marveling at anything in particular, we just floated around in a general state of marvel. It was great.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Schneeballen.

The hotel.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Night Watchman.

Alas, all things must end (Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof, as the Germans would say). On the upside, our following stop was Switzerland, which will be the subject of our next blog post…

PS: Like the photos? There’s a LOT more where they came from. Check out my photos, and Carol’s photos on Google+.

We’ve been pretty silent for the last few weeks, but with good reason! We took trips to Munich, Bavaria, and Zurich, as well as had some friends come visit us. We’ll be posting some updates over the next few days with pictures and stories from these past weeks. Stay tuned.

Friday night we headed out to the airport to take advantage of the cheap flights offered by EasyJet. I was a bit skeptical since it was roughly 100 Euros per person to fly, and about 150 Euros to take a train. Turns out Easyjet is about on par with any domestic flight in the US, where you have little leg room and you have to buy anything you would like to eat. Not a big deal considering it was a 35 minute flight to Copenhagen from Hamburg.

We arrived in Copenhagen around 9:30pm and walked to our Hotel, The Copenhagen Admiral Hotel http://www.admiralhotel.dk/da. Because we arrived late on a Friday night the Concierge upgraded us to the king suite. The suite was on the 7th floor looking out over the mouth of the canal that connects out to the Øresund. Copenhagen faces the Øresund to the east, which is the strait of water that separates Denmark from Sweden, and connects the North Sea with the Baltic Sea.

A few notes about Copenhagen and Denmark; Danes love their bikes, it is a very wealthy nation, and they use the Krone for currency (1 US Dollar = 6.60 Kroner). You would think that the exchange rate would work in our favor on this one, but unfortunately everything was jacked up price wise.

Saturday was a windy snowy day. We had high hopes to do a free walking tour to learn the layout of the city and get some background history. After about 15 minutes of standing in a group of 30 people and not doing a whole lot of walking we skipped out and started on our own walking tour. Our walk began in Copenhagen Central Square. From the square you can see Tivoli which is the oldest Amusement park in Europe. It was unfortunately closed this time of year, but still beautiful. Copenhagen, being the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson, was adorned with many sculptures of his likeness. We did go through the Hans Christian Anderson museum which mostly consisted of dramatic recorded readings of his most famous works. We spent most of the day Saturday admiring the architecture of Copenhagen. It did however give us about 30 minutes to thaw out.

We then headed to the Royal Danish Library. An impressive modern building called the Black Diamond was connected to the older section of library. Danes are known for their architectural expertise, and this building was modern, sleek, and creative. Inside there were many floors of differing collections. The most impressive were the priceless items they had displayed on exhibit. The exhibit itself was ‘pop-culture on crack’, with the priceless items displayed in a circle of glass in the middle of the pop culture imagery. That part was a bit bizarre.

We did a lot of walking and continued on to see Rosenburg Castle gardens, The Citadel, random brave people Kayaking in the canals, and the Little Mermaid statue. We walked approximately 11 miles and we were pretty cold, tired, and hungry at the end of it. Bedtime came early around 9pm for us :P.

Sunday we got up early and walked up to the Little Mermaid statue to try and get pictures of her in the sunrise. She is situated just on the Baltic Sea side of the Citadel. We got there just in time to avoid the masses. From there we went to a small coffee shop and got Danishes and coffee, then headed back to the Hotel and checked out. We went onto Rosenburg Castle to take a tour of the inside and the National Jewels and Treasury. “Rosenborg Castle is a renaissance castle located in Copenhagen, Denmark. The castle was originally built as a country summerhouse in 1606 and is an example of Christian IV’s many architectural projects.” The castle is open to the public but guarded by armed soldiers. Which is understandable, because there are many priceless items kept at this location. The Rosenburg castle was particularly interesting because much of it had been preserved from the time of the first King who inhabited it.

From there we had some lunch at an Irish Pub, then went to the Royal Danish Art Museum. Because Copenhagen is a well preserved city with the Altstadt (Old City) still intact it’s architecture was beautiful and intricate with an attention to detail. The canals are lined with old style wooden ships. Nyhavn was one of my favorite spots and generally what you see if you google images of Copenhagen. It is clear that this city would be even better viewed in the summer when you could take a boat out onto the Sound. But overall we enjoyed our visit to Copenhagen. I have included a selection of pictures, but here’s a link to more. Phelan and I took at a lot between the two of us!

As you may have guessed, Carol and I visited Berlin last weekend. Although we only stayed for two days, it made quite an impression on me. The above quote is evocative, but not completely accurate these days. However you want to describe it though, the city is anything but dull.

The trip from Hamburg to our hotel near the main train station (the Berlin Hauptbahnhof) took about 3 hours. Taking full advantage of the lack of speed limits on certain sections of the Autobahn, we pushed our little Renault rental up to 174kph, or about 108 miles per hour.

We had booked a walking tour of the city, but had about an hour to kill before it started. So in the interest of exploration we headed in the general direction of the meetup point without a clear plan. Quickly, Carol and I were exposed to the political side of Berlin. A protest against industrialized farming was just ramping up as we walked through the Platz der Republik, with signs declaring discontent with topics ranging from agribusiness to nuclear power. The crowds thickened as we made our way towards the imposing Brandenburger Tor, with large portions of the surrounding streets having been shut down to accommodate the throngs of people.

My impression of Berlin’s passion for political and social issues was further reinforced by the impromptu memorial we passed outside of the French embassy. Flowers, pencils, signs and candles festooned the sidewalk outside of the doors. One offering made a particular impression on me- a full artist’s toolkit of pencils, pens and erasers, all clearly well used but not certainly past their prime. It seemed like a sacrifice of something useful and therefore more meaningful from the previous owner.

The walking tour (when it finally started, delayed as it was by the protests), was a fun experience. Our tour guide (Johnny) was a British expat with a quick wit and encyclopedic knowledge of Berlin counterculture. The tour group itself was a diverse bunch, with visitors from the US, UK, Turkey, Israel, and New Zealand.

Probably my favorite place was Cassiopeia. Do you like gritty, amazing street art? What about skateboarding (street course, full 14-foot vert pipe, mini ramps and a big bowl)? Restaurants and a beer garden? How do you feel about DIY rock climbing walls, some of which are bolted (safety laws? psssssh) onto the outside of buildings? Nightclubs and music? Cassiopeia has all of this, wrapped in a kind of screw-you punk rock attitude. It was awesome.